Floreana Island
A chilly morning here along the equator! Today we awoke to a deep fog and a cool breeze coming out of Floreana’s highlands. With an early start to our activities, we awoke at six a.m. and were soon departing by Zodiac to cruise along “La Loberia,” a sea lion colony surrounded by cacti. This particular type of cacti is a member of the opuntia type, an endemic species for the Galápagos.
As part of the this morning’s itinerary, we visited Post Office Bay, the oldest mail post in the East Pacific, established by Captain James Colnett in 1793. As the Polaris passes through each week, we stop to pick up the mail keeping this tradition alive. When guests leave at the end of the week, they will carry with them mail for their area and will hand deliver it just as whalers did centuries ago. These whalers had stopped here in the Galápagos for the meat of the giant tortoise.
After a delicious breakfast we continue our day, preparing ourselves (both mentally and physically) to get into water which is a tepid 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Wearing our wetsuits, we’ll spend the next hour snorkeling around Champion Islet to see several species of tropical fishes and swim with Galápagos sea lions. Some other guests opted for an easier way to spot all this wildlife, which is by cruising around Champion in the Polaris’ glass bottom boat, from where you can enjoy a lot of what normally can be seen while snorkeling. Champion is unique since here lives an endemic species of mockingbird; this is the Floreana mockingbird, which inspired Charles Darwin's theory of Natural Selection. This species of mockingbird has become extinct in the main island of Floreana, and barely survives in the satellite islets of Champion and Enderby.
After lunch we disembark at Punta Cormorant, where an easy walk leads us into a lagoon which has Flamingoes, once again a Galápagos’ endemic subspecies, and other birds such as black necked stilts, white-cheeked pintail ducks, whimbrels and other birds that regularly visit the lagoon to feed. The flamingoes are quite specific in their diet, feeding mainly on Artemia salina, a particular type of shrimp that gives the bird the carotenes needed to synthesize its pink color.
The trail continues leading us to a sea turtle nesting ground, which is a white beach made out of eroded coral. Today the sun only came out late in the afternoon, and the colors of nature glow as the last beams of the sunset bring us another day rich in wonderful experiences on our cruise aboard the Polaris.
A chilly morning here along the equator! Today we awoke to a deep fog and a cool breeze coming out of Floreana’s highlands. With an early start to our activities, we awoke at six a.m. and were soon departing by Zodiac to cruise along “La Loberia,” a sea lion colony surrounded by cacti. This particular type of cacti is a member of the opuntia type, an endemic species for the Galápagos.
As part of the this morning’s itinerary, we visited Post Office Bay, the oldest mail post in the East Pacific, established by Captain James Colnett in 1793. As the Polaris passes through each week, we stop to pick up the mail keeping this tradition alive. When guests leave at the end of the week, they will carry with them mail for their area and will hand deliver it just as whalers did centuries ago. These whalers had stopped here in the Galápagos for the meat of the giant tortoise.
After a delicious breakfast we continue our day, preparing ourselves (both mentally and physically) to get into water which is a tepid 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Wearing our wetsuits, we’ll spend the next hour snorkeling around Champion Islet to see several species of tropical fishes and swim with Galápagos sea lions. Some other guests opted for an easier way to spot all this wildlife, which is by cruising around Champion in the Polaris’ glass bottom boat, from where you can enjoy a lot of what normally can be seen while snorkeling. Champion is unique since here lives an endemic species of mockingbird; this is the Floreana mockingbird, which inspired Charles Darwin's theory of Natural Selection. This species of mockingbird has become extinct in the main island of Floreana, and barely survives in the satellite islets of Champion and Enderby.
After lunch we disembark at Punta Cormorant, where an easy walk leads us into a lagoon which has Flamingoes, once again a Galápagos’ endemic subspecies, and other birds such as black necked stilts, white-cheeked pintail ducks, whimbrels and other birds that regularly visit the lagoon to feed. The flamingoes are quite specific in their diet, feeding mainly on Artemia salina, a particular type of shrimp that gives the bird the carotenes needed to synthesize its pink color.
The trail continues leading us to a sea turtle nesting ground, which is a white beach made out of eroded coral. Today the sun only came out late in the afternoon, and the colors of nature glow as the last beams of the sunset bring us another day rich in wonderful experiences on our cruise aboard the Polaris.
